Access to Primary Heath Care
Physicians, nurses, and other health care industry officials testified on ways to increase Americans' access to primary care doctors. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimated that the U.S. would have a shortage of approximately 21,000 primary care physicians in 2015, with the shortfall projected to further increase as the number of primary care medical students continued to decline and 30 million Americans became eligible for heath care under the Affordable Care Act. Among the issues discussed were Medicare reimbursement rates, changing the culture of medical schools to encourage students into primary health care, and forgiveness of some of the medical school loan debt accrued by primary care practitioners. close